The Key and the Broken Wing

by Jessabell Tales

  Chapter Eleven

  Once the storm had cooled off and the dusk turned into dawn, the sun emerged out of the white clouds. It brightened the valley of smiles which lay covered with green and white berries. A small portion of rotten bench overlooked the pier and the outstanding town full of shops and houses, even small dots walking along the beach made it worthwhile to sit on the grass and watch the world go by.  There behind the benches and two steep steps lay an old picnic table and along each side of it were two lads.  It looked as though they were shading away from the strong blue sky and their noses seemed to be red. 

       "Daniel. Do you think Jezzabell was a butterfly?" Slinks asked him.

       "I think she is, she acted like a human,"

       "Do you," Slinks lifted his legs over the seat and held his face with his elbows on the table. "Do you fancy her?" he asked again.

       Daniel opened his eyes and let out a big yawn. As his face went red he wiped his dry nose with a tissue.

       "Nah, she reminds me of a friend I lost years ago. We were only nine years old.  It was a small A fishing trip. Once they had entered the boat she seemed to be alright but once we had reached the edge of the harbour and in to the sea she appeared to be going white and then, “he stretched his arms.

       "An hour later when we reached dry land in the south part of the country, she collapsed, “he quietly spoke.

       "I remember, I was in the caravan when your mum rang and told me dad, she was allergic to Salt water and the fear of sinking. I wish you had both turned the fishing trip down,” Slinks described the event.

       "Ah, Kate was a great friend," Daniel closed his eyes.

       The small tree that sat next to the rotten bench began to rustle, not only with noise of movement but also its green leafs started to float into the hedges that lay behind them.

       "Someone’s spying on us," Slinks turned his head round.  The howling of the wind suddenly appeared and then, something quickly fell into the hedge. The tree stopped swaying and a small grey object started to pull the hedge apart.

       "Crunch," went the hedge and the parted leaves jumped back together to form the same old hedge.     "No!" Daniel said as he dived over to the hedge narrowly missing the nails that could have harmed the cygnet. He put his left hand over the cygnet’s body and ran back to picnic table. He took his right hand which was on top of the animal he had caught and uncovered the animal. It hobbled into the centre.

       "oh, you  poor thing,  the storm must have bought you here," Slinks said and he picked a small round of brown bread from the empty loaf bag and started to break it up into tiny squares. The cygnet hobbled over to him and it began to take the small pieces out of Slinks Hands. After the cygnet had eaten the last piece of bread, it lay down to peck the grass grains off its right wing.

       "It will never find its parents," Daniel watched it peck the last bit of grass out of its wing.

       "Perhaps we can give it a new home, The Larks n Wishful lake, that one on the mountain," Slinks patted the cygnet head.

       "Firth, Frithy firth," Daniel glared at the cygnets closed wing. "That’s where Jezzabell went with wicked Kimberley," Daniel rubbed his wary eye.

       "Something’s wrapped round its right foot," Slinks said as he unwound a shiny ribbon. He held it up into the light and streaks of thin lines began to glisten.

       "Jezzabell' in trouble," he stuttered. Daniel snatched the ribbon off him and placed it next to the cygnet.  As he unravelled the ribbon the thin streaks dissolved into tiny dots which formed the shape of a butterfly.

       "It's her other wing, she been hurt," Daniel stood up and the cygnet nodded his head. The cygnet began to quack silently, as it ran toward the edge of the table Slinks placed his hands in front of the cygnet making the young one step back into the centre of the table.

       "We have to rescue her," Daniel spoke as he placed the tiny ribbon into his pocket. The cygnet looked up at him as he was about to leave the bench and it gave out a loud cry.

       "Come here, Babsy," Slinks folded his arms and the young cygnet trampled over his hands and into the crooks of his arms.

       As they walked down to the pier, they noticed a small green sign on the amusements window; its black typed message had been scribbled out with white glue. A dog barked at them as it ran past with its large owner, and the shop keeper who owned the bag stall came out to hang a couple of beaded green bags onto the empty hooks which stood behind them. 

       "The sailors went away yesterday evening, they were leaving town to catch some thin and slimy fish with square eyes," the shop keeper said aloud. Daniel turned to look at her and the bags that she was hooking up on the stalls wall.

       "When will they be coming back? he asked. She shrugged her shoulders and walked into the shop' doorway.

       "EeeOr, Cried the donkeys on the other side of the beach.

       "Donkey rides, they can take us to Firth, “Slinks pointed his hand towards them.

       "Duck, the donkeys are only for small children," the shop keeper came out with a handful of black leather bags.

       "Quack, Quack, Quack,"Babsy cried. She glared into Slinks arms and he smiled.

       "Is there any way of getting there by boat?,"

       "No, Cruises don't go that way, they head up north and south, but you can use the buses but, that would take about two hours," she started to hang the other bags up.

       "Quack,”

       "EeeOr," the donkeys yelled. Slinks wandered over to the bag stall and leaned onto the piers blue rails. 

       "Them donkeys are making a noise," the woman moaned.

       "Quack," Babsy spoke to the donkeys.

       "The jetty, we can run down the jetty and use Babsy to fly us to Jezzabell," Slinks suggested. Before Daniel could say anything Slinks had rushed past the woman and wandered down onto the jetty.

       "He's weird," the woman sat down onto the sandy blue bench. 

       "He's not weird, he, he is my," Daniel walked away from her. "My helpful Friend," he finished the sentence as he had passed the pier’s gates.

       Daniel leapt onto the seashells that the high tide left behind and climbed onto the long jetty. His black shoes slowly turned soggy as other sailors and surfers had used it to ride along the quiet waves.

       Slinks on the other hand was sitting on the edge of jetty, his head held down with a sad face and his grey socks which covered his feet dangled in the water. 

       "Slinks, you cannot fly, we are not like Jezzabell," Daniel said.

       “Babsy wouldn't fly; I think he is scarred," Slinks kicked his feet in the water and the wave splashed back into the ocean.

       "Babsy, Where,"

       "Quack," Babsy answered him swimming around the jetty.

       "We will have to wait for it to grow," Slinks sighed. He picked a small round pebble up from the sand and threw it into the water.

       "We have to get there, Jezzabell needs us. If anything happens to her, it'd be like,"

       "I know, Kate again," Slinks slowly created a ripple of circles in the water.  Daniel sat down near him and the Cygnet; Babsy began to swim in the same circles as Slinks had made. Daniel laughed and then Babsy began to quack. It was like he was speaking to the lads but infect he was quacking to the distant noises. Daniel grabbed the last and lonely pebble that lay on the end of the jetty. He swerved him arm towards the pier and let go of the stone. It bounced across the sand and landed into pile of white seashells which lay on the clean sand.  Many of these shells broke in half and two of them slid back into the ocean.

       "EeeOr," Daniel jumped onto his feet.

       "Quack,"

       "EeeOr, OR,"

       "EeeOr," a small pack of
donkeys spoke.

       Right next to the Jetty were a herd of donkeys. They formed into three lines of three, the first row of donkeys furr were grey and white and the other two lines were a mixture of black, white and brown and  a couple of them standing next to each other were white. Their white and green harnesses had their names printed in gold and the saddles lay flat against their back. In the middle of them was an old man, again he looked like the one that Daniel had spoken to on the tram that went up the mountain. He tightened the reigns in his hand and wrapped the excess of thin green rope off the sandy beach to stop the donkeys from trapping their feet into the deep sand. The old man stumbled across to the second row of donkeys. Charles quickly kicked his back legs in frustration.

       "No, No, Charles, you’re going to have to ride," the old man grasped the reigns. The donkey shook its head and flicked the excess sand up into the other donkey’s faces.

       "EeeOr," the other donkeys spoke.

       "Quack," Babsy waddled next to the noisy donkey. The old man rolled his eyes, he peered down at the cygnet that waved at him with its left wing and then looked back at the two lads.

       "EeeOr," and the donkey kicked back.

       "Stop it or else," the old man shouted.

       “Excuse me. Where do you get the bus to Firth," Daniel asked the old man. Babsy waddled slowly underneath Charles Back legs and Charles let out a piercing cry.

       "Shut up Charles," the old man mumbled.   

   "Quack," Babsy spoke.  Charles took a deep breath in and kicked his feet up high, as his left foot came down Babsy pecked the small splinter out of the donkey’s mule. He pulled the end bit out of the ridge and hopped over to the jetty where Slinks and Daniels were standing still.

       "Quack,” Babsy spat it out in front of Slinks foot.  

       "The bus station on Monoion Street," the lad replied.

       "Sorry about this but can you move in five. We are going to practice with our new boat,” Called the coast guard who was opening the stations door.

       "I don’t know but you could use a map. It will help you find the bus station," the old man looked at the cygnet.

       "Babsy found this underneath Charles," Daniel passed it over to the old man.

       "Your baby swan was kind, Thank you," the old man clunked the reigns and the donkeys trotted away from them.

       "Quack, Quack," Babsy quacked to gain their attention and the lads began to follow him.

       Down the small, narrow and thin promenade they passed many hotels, each one of them coloured in a different colour to stand out to the large amount of tourist. This of all was many people carrying suit cases across the road and down the entrances of the famous blue faded Band B.  Those who were not looking for a place to stay ran up towards the pier ready to watch the pumpkin and twilight show that hanged around for days. No one was worried about Daniel and Slinks, the little cygnet that they were following carried on quacking to the rushing feet that merely missed him.  

       He stopped right in front of a blind man making the white border collier sniff at him.  The man who wore dark green glasses, a brownish grey duffle coat and brown gloves to match his chocolate shoes covered in candy and his blue jeans that crinkled along the edge of his ankles made the impression that he was not here for fun. Babsy looked up at the Blind mans smiling face.

       "Quack, Quack," he said.

       "Woof," the Border collie barked.

       The blind man stood still, he reached out for the invisible lamppost that should have been there, and then, all of a sudden he looked left.

       "Hey, Babsy, Don't play with the man’s shoes," Daniel shouted and the man looked at him.

       "Quack," Babsy replied. The man’s dog sat upright along the flat tiles of the promenade and it began to sniff Slinks feet. It quickly pulled it nose away from him and whined.

       "Excuse me, sir; do you know where the bus station is?" Daniel asked pushing a small map of the street at him. The blind man ripped the map into two, he patted the dog and slowly dropped the two half’s in front of the dogs nose.  The dog began to shred the left half of the map that contained the main streets apart into strips.  Slinks quickly picked the other half of the map up before the dog could eat it and he hid it behind his back.

       "I cannot see, the dog will tell you where it is, I also need to get on a bus, to get into the other town, and He paused to award his dog for good behaviour.  The dog looked back at Babsy who was also trying to chew a strip of the map that lay on the floor.

       "Woof, the dog licked the candy off the man’s right shoe and stood up.

       "We have to go to the valley of smiles, the bus station is in the cave," the blind man said. The dog barked in approval.

       "That means we have to walk up the steep bank," Slinks pulled his face.

  The old man smiled.

  “Slinks we need to rescue Jezzabell,” Daniel nudged him.

       "Why is she in trouble?” the blind man wanted to know.

       "We don’t know but I have a feeling that she could end up doing something she doesn’t like," Daniel answered. Babsy opened one of his wings and jumped onto the dog’s tail. He crawled along it until he reached the black back and hobbled over to his head.

       "Daniel! Why did you have to tell him? She’s only a butterfly" Slinks crossed his arm.

       “She needs us,” Daniel yelled at him.

  “I’m not going up the bank again, it’s hot,”

  “Slinks we are a team. If it was your sister you would want to find her,” Daniel screamed back.    

  "I think Jack knows where we are going," the old man stopped them from arguing. Slinks let go of the map he soon had forgotten about and he patted his mates shoulder.

       "Quack," Babsy quacked at the lads. Slinks shook his head and blinked at the cygnet; he held the Blind man’s hand and they followed the dog along the promenade.

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